I have stories in both volumes of Fight Like A Girl, this story being a sequel of the first (although it can be read by itself too.) They are set in an alternative version of the city of Brighton and Hove, where I lived for multiple years.

How Fighting Has Shifted

I wrote the first story focusing on a girl trying to prove herself – to herself as much as anyone else. She is a lone wolf, trying to keep up with her own ideals, and ensure she doesn’t look weak or inferior to others. Her superpower was on being underestimated, and using that to her advantage.

This sequel, ‘Ready for Combat’, focuses a lot more on collective momentum, and on the division I’ve come to see in our real-world, and some of the story events draw inspiration from actual protests and marches I’ve seen or attended.

Expanding Definitions

Set decades later than the first story, we see how conflict has shifted with the changing world, including experiences of those who don’t fit the traditional roles of their gender or expected sexuality. We see the way that people exclude those of non-binary or transgender presentations, and how this fight requires all of us to fight for basic human rights for all women.

While the first story was about a woman finding her ability to fight, the second hones in on our little acts of kindness and solidarity and how those build to something greater than the sum of its parts – especially when all kinds of women come together to fight for the most basic rights.

Why I Wrote This Story

As the author, I am pansexual, which means I find people attractive across all gender spectrums, including those who present as or identify as non-binary. In this story, I tap into my experience of dating trans women, not by trying to tell their story, but by sharing some of my own experiences as a cisgender woman who has seen how society treats my friends and partners first-hand.

Alongside my own story, the themes in this second volume really explore the term of “girl” and “woman” and what we now understand of both the biological and social aspects of these terms.

Fighting like a girl just isn’t what it used to be. It sure isn’t an insult, if you’ve ever faced a woman who was ready for any kind of battle, and the arguments about how others identify are divisions we really don’t need to have.

And this is an anthology really exploring the truths of how we women fight in so many different ways. Want to know more?

K R Green